Arkansas Poised to Allow Guns On College Campuses

The state legislature has passed a bill on its way to the governor

Better not turn in that paper late. Your college professor could be packing heat.

The Arkansas state legislature has passed a bill allowing college campuses to decide whether to allow faculty and staff to carry concealed handguns. The Arkansas bill would not allow students to carry concealed weapons. Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat is expected to sign the measure into law, Reuters reports.

The issue has been hotly debated nationwide following several campus shootings in recent years, including the 2007 incident at the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg.

Arkansas would be the 24th state to let colleges or universities decide for themselves whether to allow concealed carry of weapons on campus, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some states already allow students to carry concealed weapons, Reuters said.

Who is this that wrote the first line of that article? That's the stupidest inflammatory thing I've seen here yet. Why would anyone say that. The idea that a professor might actually try to save a life by being able to protect them self or maybe a student is so terrible that the writer assumes they would shoot a student is so twisted. That's BS and you know it.

Keep in mind that the VA tech shooting did not happen until after they outlawed faculty, staff and students and even off duty police taking classes there from carrying or possessing on campus. These cowards that shoot unarmed people don't want concealed carry, they might get shot.

In fact, at Virgina Tech Cho continued his rampage because law enforcement on the scene failed to see past the initial double murders - they had no idea the rampage was continuing in other parts of the campus. http://goo.gl/Ybx5I

@DARSB Just think....if one student had been allowed to carry concealed they might have stopped it. Gun free zones.......helping the crazy continue their acts. Disarming the law abiding works great, just like in this example.

Perhaps that's why certain people in this country want to take away people's guns, so they will be easier to round up and exterminate, just like in WWII. An unarmed person is a slave to those that are armed.

The main reason these mass killers pick Gun Free Zones, even though they are suicidal killers, is they want to kill as many people as they can before they themselves get killed or commit suicide, because they want to get their 15 minutes of fame that the Mainstream and Fox medias will give them. They are copycat killers and fame seekers, depressives who want to become infamous, and the media encourages them!

Yes, because the Cho's, the Holmes's, Lanza's don't care if they're allowed or not. I guarantee you you'd see an end to these "fish in the barrel" shootings, or psychotic gunman mowed down before they did much harm. There are documented instances of teachers at schools who've gone out to their cars, gotten a gun and stopped a potential massacre. We've seen psychos massacre unarmed people because they KNEW they'd be unarmed, but we've never seen a LICENSED TO CARRY individual carry out his own or her own massacre with such licensed weapon, however.

Uh, you're just making up fairy tales as you go along, Colonel. Surely you can provide us with proof of the the "documented instances" (plural) where a teacher left a school, went and retrieved a weapon from their vehicle, came back and stopped a massacre in progress or stopped a gunman who was planning a massacre. We'll wait patiently for your proof of these "documented instances".

@DapperDave,If you had the slightest interest in the truth, you would download the instances of mass school shootings from the internet, put into a spreadsheet, and graph the number killed vs. time. Then you would see for yourself - the dramatic increase beginning in 1991 (when they invented the "gun-free zone"). Wikipedia has a good page, but there are others.

@DapperDave P.S. We're not like your fearful leaders, i.e. Dianne Feinstein, and her outrageous lie of "one of out every 5 police officers killed is killed with an assault weapon". For debunking THAT Big Lie, just go to www.lawofficer.com and search for the November/December 2012 issue. This is a magazine BY COPS FOR COPS (and retired cops like me).

What is the problem with letting students carry concealed weapons? I support allowing faculty to carry, but students need this 2nd Amendment right too. How many professors have been raped as opposed to students? Everyone, and I do mean every law abiding citizen, should have the right to protect themselves, especially when they are in dangerous situations.

@Sonny my daughter is a student at one of these schools. She carries everywhere she goes except on campus. Why would she act any differently on campus than off? She hasn't shot anyone. This argument you keep making about what if a good guy goes bad is getting ridiculous. Have you somehow found a way to convict people for future crimes? If you have then you have completely solved all the worlds crime problems. All we need to do is have you going around pointing out who is about to do something and we put them in jail. And no more victims!

@Sonny Absolutely correct. New "criminals" are not only born every day, they also transition from being "law abiding" to none "law abiding" in an instant of time. Trust people with guns? Provoke the wrong person with a gun and don't be surprised at what happens now and then.

@Sonny I raised my kids well enough to be able to trust mine. And it makes me feel a lot better knowing she has a way to protect herself. Girls have been raped on campus before you know. I want her to have more than a damn whistle.

@NTBFW You are missing the point. We can't necessarily point out which gun owner will in a moment of non-discretion "loose it" or make a fatal error in judgement. The more people are given the opportunity to screw up, the more they will because people are not perfect.

I'm not trusting my professor with a gun. Most are Libs and would refuse anyway. If its MY life I should have the right to protect MY life. That and students carrying also gives the campus and other students the element of surprise to an assailant. Duh!

@Concerned_Cit I don't know if they are best ignored, but look around, alot of the things being passed or floated around these days can easily turn a law abiding citizen into an outlaw. I guess it's amazing what you can get use to.

@AlexMIA The old saying that "people have a civic duty not to obey unjust laws" perhaps would have been a better choice of words instead of ignored. Yes, the more laws that are passed, the more criminals are created. If enough laws are passed, everyone is a criminal.

Same here also. I don't have to have a CCL since I am an LEO at the moment, but even before I entered law enforcement I carried concealed without a license. Most people do I've found out, but I've never given anyone a hard time over having a gun on them unless they had a violent criminal record or were acting extremely stupid. Many police feel the same as I do, that guns in the hands of good citizens makes our jobs that much easier and safer by reducing crime rates. Unfortunately many of the political police officers, such as police chiefs, are on the take and are bribed by antigun people to say the contrary. Police corruption is rampant sad to say, but I guess that is the case with most positions of authority. Glad I'll be retiring in just a few more years.

@Politic-n Some of my cop friends are very hard on crime but don't harrass people over some of the sillier laws as well. Congratulations on your upcoming retirement, stay safe til then. How much time do you have in?

That sounds just Great!...So now, after a hard-fought college football game. The kids can go to any number of parties on campus, get drunk...have a few fights...Then remember that they have this gun---So why bother to fist-fight this out...lets just start throwing lead all over campus...Great Idea!

I support the right to carry for faculty & students. As far as the students? They are old enough to go to war and shoot guns in defense of our country... They are old enough to be responsible enough to defend themselves on campus also.~ Bearing arms against enemies foreign and domestic is a responsibility... a responsibility young adults should engage. The matter of training is their own responsibility as well.~ All that is called "freedom".

Great! now Arkansas can be just like Texas where those 2 morons last month got into a fight and one pulled out a gun (because like all gun owners, he's a coward that can't fight without pulling out a gun) and the other moron pulled out a gun and then they proceeded to shoot up the campus and kill innocent bystanders. The problem in this country is not guns, the problem is that it's mostly cowardly morons that want guns, carry guns and use guns. So what we need to do is make laws for when someone uses a gun in a non-life threatening situation then we beat them until they are dead. They all want to be Wyatt Earp well then let's let them be just like him, dead and in the ground.

@Knuckleballer I didn't call any names, I simply stated fact based on evidence. I have never met a person carrying a gun that wasn't a scared little coward. Unless you are in war or a police officer, you do not need a gun.

I am a gun owner as are many of my friends.... NONE of them would fit your comment.... "because like all gun owners, he's a coward that can't fight without pulling out a gun"

Several of them are highly decorated combat veterans, hardly cowards. I've lived my life as to never tolerate acting like or tolerating being called a coward.

Your generalizations are highly insulting to many men who put their lives on the line so people like you would have the right to call them whatever you want. Just be certain that you don't confuse having the right to act with the wisdom of acting.

"dead and in the ground.".... nice comment... spin away, I'm just hoping at some point you have the courage to make those same comments when you don't have the protection of the anonymity of a fake name on the internet, but I doubt it will happen.

I assume the persons allowed to carry concealed weapons,are trained,discharged honorably,or have a county or state gov't issued valid concealed weapons permit. As armed guard in Calif.,I can ONLY carry a weapon while in uniform and on duty. On the way to a firing range in the trunk unloaded. Arkansas in quite dissimilar to Calif.'s take.

Many College Directors are looking into this matter with concern here in Arkansas.

Now pertaining to the Churches, His Excellency Bishop Taylor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock strictly forbids guns at Catholic Schools, Diocese, and the Catholic Churches in Arkansas unless that person is a Trained Law Enforcement on duty.